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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 15 October 2009
The root metaphor of God's kingship appears to have been the most fertile of those applied to God in the Bible. Although this metaphor was commonly applied to deities in the ancient Near East, in Israel it bore unique fruits. The seriousness with which it was taken is manifested in Israel's unique conception of her relation with God as a covenant with a suzerain. Conformably, Israel viewed her title to her land as a grant from the suzerain. Her prophets were pictured as royal messengers or ambassadors. Similarly expressive of God's kingship is the Israelite concept of divine authorship of laws, a role reserved for kings elsewhere in the ancient Near East.
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19. Hallo, W. W., “Individual Prayer in Sumerian: The Continuity of a Tradition,” JAOS, 88 (1968), 71–89.Google Scholar
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21. Cf. Ibid p. 76, nn. 27, 32; 80, n. 78.
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23. Cf. Ibid 79 and n. 74, and Hallo, “The Royal Correspondence of Larsa: I. A Sumerian Prototype for the Prayer of Hezekiah?,” n. 19 and accompanying text, in the forthcoming jubilee volume in honor of Samuel Noah Kramer
24. UET 6/2, no. 403, studied byGadd, C. J., “Two Sketches from Life at Ur,” Iraq, 25 (1963), 177 ff.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
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26. Ibid p. 117.
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28. Cf. Eissfeldt, The Old Testament, pp. 58 f., 98 f.
29. Cf. SAHG, pt. I, no. 7.
30. Ibid nos. 25 and 26.
31. ARM 5, no. 66 (Oppenheim, Letters, p. 100).
32. ANET3, 631a; cf. p. 450c.
33. ANET3 483–90.
34. Cf. EA 296 (Oppenheim, Letters, p. 126), on which seeBohl, F., “Hymnisches und Rhythmisches in den Amarnabriefen aus Kanaan,” in his Opera Minora (Groningen, 1953), pp. 375 f.Google Scholar
35. EA 147 (Oppenheim, Letters, pp. 123–25; ANET 3, p. 484).
36. EA 144:16–18 (Oppenheim, Letters, pp. 126 f.).
37. “On the Refinement,” above, pp. 68 f.; cf. SAHG, p. 122 top.
38. EA 264:14–19 (Oppenheim, Letters, p. 127), on which see Böhl, op. cit., p. 375.
39. See n. 35. Cf.Albright, W. F., “The Egyptian Correspondence of Abimilki,” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, 23 (1937), 197–99.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
40. ANET3, 256d. Cf. the text quoted by Cogan, Imperialism and Religion, p. 45.
41. See n. 36.
42. EA 287:60 (ANET 3 488c); cf.Dean, S., “The Deuteronomic Name Theology” (unpublished Harvard thesis, 1969).Google Scholar
43. See n. 35; EA 286 (ANET 3, 487d).
44. ABL, 6 (Pfeiffer, no. 161).
45. For several examples see CAD A2, 251c.
46. ABL, 499, 756, 880;Thompson, R. C., The Reports of the Magicians and Astrologers of Nineveh and Babylon (London: Luzac, 1900), no. 158,Google Scholar quoted byOppenheim, , “Divination and Celestial Observation in the Last Assyrian Empire,” Centaurus, 14 (1969), 117.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
47. ABL, 6, 358 (Pfeiffer, nos. 161, 162).
48. ABL, 499 (Pfeiffer, no. 172).
49. ABL, 358 (Pfeiffer, no. 162).
50. ABL, 435 (Pfeiffer, no. 164; Oppenheim, Letters, p. 151).
51. ABL, 80, 435, 880.
52. ABL, 2, 353, 416, 530.
53. ABL, 885.
54. Cf. Thompson, Reports, no. 170, cited by Oppenheim, Centaurus, pp. 14, 116.
55. ABL, 2 (Pfeiffer, no. 160; Oppenheim, Letters, 149 f.), 530.
56. ABL, 498
57. ABL, 166.
58. ABL, 885; Thompson, Reports, nos. 73 and 158, quoted by Oppenheim, Centaurus, 14, 116, 117.
59. ABL, 2 (above, n. 55), 283 and 793 (Oppenheim, Letters, p. 152); Rs 20.16, a letter to the king of Ugarit, quoted byWeidner, E., “Neue Entdeckungen in Ugarit,” AfO, 18 (1957–58), 169.Google Scholar
60. ABL, 716 (Oppenheim, Letters, pp. 179 f.),756 (Pfeiffer, no. 174), cf. 1261 (Pfeiffer, no. 180). Cf. ANET 3, 249b and n. 40 of the present paper. For an early example of such a promise addressed to a god as an inducement to save his city, see the letter from Sin-iddinam to Utu cited by Hallo in the article mentioned above, n. 19.
61. See n. 55; this part of the text is translated in ANET 3, 626. Cf. LKA no. 31, translated byWeidner, E., “Assurbanipal in Assur,” AfO, 13 (1939–41), 210–13; cf. I Mace. 14:4–15.Google Scholar
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63. Cf. Akkadian palah ili u sarri (an example is cited byPaul, S., “Sargon7apos;s Administrative Diction in II Kings 17:27,” JBL 88 [1969], 73);Google Scholar cf. a similar phrase in Lambert, W. G., Babylonian Wisdom Literature (Oxford, 1960), p. 63; cf. also Eccl. 8:2.Google Scholar
64. Cf. Tigay, EJ, 2, 300.
65. See n. 16.
66. Cf. ABL, 3, rev. 7, “that which the king, my lord, has said is as perfect as (the word) of a god” (thus CAD I/J, 91c). Cf. the remarks ofvan Selms, A., “Halo in the Courtier's Language in Ancient Israel,” Fourth World Congress of Jewish Studies. Papers, vol. I (Jerusalem, 1967), 138Google Scholar
67. Ziegler, § I, nos. 68–70, 75, 76, 81, 82, 93, 105, 107, 109, 111, 112, 114; § III, 58; § IV, 37; § V, 1, 25, 31, 32, 47, 65, 77; § VI, 19; § XI, 48. See also Exodus Rabbah 15:12 (Lieberman, S., Hellenism in Jewish Palestine [New York, 1962], pp. 4 f.);Google Scholar Midrash Aggadah 27:1, cited byGinzberg, L., Legends of the Jews, III (Philadelphia, 1954), 148 f.Google Scholar Note the statement of R. Sheshet: “Earthly kingship is like heavenly kingship” (T.B. Berakot 58a). My colleague, Prof. Judah Goldin, calls my attention to Abot de-Rabbi Natan A, chap. 15 (ed. Schechter, p. 61; seeGoldin, J., The Fathers According to Rabbi Nathan [New Haven, 1955], pp. 80 f.)Google Scholar andLieberman, S., qls qylwsyn in Alei Ayin: The Salman Schocken Jubilee Volume (Jerusalem, 1948–52), pp. 75–81.Google Scholar
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69. Cf. perhaps UT 68:10 (ANET 3 131a) and Ps. 145:13.
70. Occasions for such a liturgy might have been the king's coronation (cf. Pss. 2 and 72), marriage (cf. Ps. 45), birth of a child (cf. Isa. 9:5 f.), going forth to battle (cf. Ps. 20), and victorious return (cf. I Sam. 18:6–7). Cf. Eissfeldt, The Old Testament, pp. 98 f., and Hallo, “The Cultic Setting” (above, n. 21), pp. 117–19.
71. Greenberg, “On the Refinement,”pp. 71–75. Cf. R. Akiba in Mekhilta Beshallah, chap. 3 (ed. Horovitz-Rabin, p. 127: 10 ff., translated inGoldin, J., The Song at the Sea [New Haven, 1971], pp. 115 ff.).Google Scholar
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75. Greenberg, “On the Refinement,” pp. 88 f.
76. Culley, R., Oral Formulaic Language in the Biblical Psalms (Toronto, 1967), though formulaic composition as such does not necessarily imply oral composition, as we know that scribes were trained in the use of formulaeCrossRefGoogle Scholar
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81. Cited by Greenberg, “On the Refinement,” p. 88.
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88. See n. 19.
89. Above, n. 80; the full study covers pp. 159–71.
90. “Ritual Procession of the Ark and Psalm 132,” Catholic Biblical Quarterly, 30 (1968), 48–55.
91. “Scripture and Inscription,” inH., Goedicke, ed., Near Eastern Studies in Honor of William Foxwell Albright (Baltimore, 1971);Google Scholar “The Zakir Inscription and the Danklied,” Proceedings of the Fifth World Congress of Jewish Studies, 1969 (Jerusalem, n. d.), 174–91;Zobel, H.J., “Das Gebet um Abwendung der Not und seine Erhorung in den Klageliedern des AT und in der Inschrift des Konigs Zakir von Hamath,” VT, 21 (1971), 91–99.Google Scholar
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93. a-ab-ba-hu-Iuh-ha: The History of a Sumerian Congregational Lament (New Haven: Yale Near Eastern Researches, no. 6, 1975).
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